mad man

These are the three states: one is thinking ­ the most disturbed state; second is feeling ­ less disturbed than thinking, but still disturbed; third is being ­ no
disturbance at all. One is in the head, second is in the heart, third is in your guts. Right­mindfulness is a gut­state: no head, no heart. You are simply there
undefined, undefinable.
You ask me: “Please explain what ‘right­mindfulness’ is. If not a goal or something to practice, what is it?”
And, yes, it is not a practice. You cannot practice it, because practice brings goal! Practice is desire, practice is mind. And remember: whenever you
practice something, you are imposing something against yourself, otherwise why practice it? Against whom are you practicing? When you practice truth, what
will you do? You will repress the untruth ­ but the untruth will remain there, deep inside you, ready to explode any moment. It will go on accumulating.
When you practice love, what will you do? You will repress hatred. When you practice compassion, what will you do? You will repress anger. And all that is
repressed will go on remaining in you, and all that is practiced will remain on the surface, and all that is rejected will go deep into your being. The rejected will
become part of your being and the practiced will remain just a coating, a painting on the surface.
And remember: whenever you practice anything, you are angry at it. Naturally so ­ because all practicing divides you, makes you schizophrenic.
One part of you is trying to manipulate the other part. One part of you is trying to enforce some ideas on the other part. And the part that is trying to enforce
is a very impotent part, but articulate ­ your head. It has no power, but it is very articulate, very clever, very cunning, very argumentative. And the head goes on
imposing on your body, on your heart, which are far more potential, far more powerful; they have energy sources, but they are not articulate, they are not
argumentative ­ they are silent. And the head goes on pretending that it has practiced.and then a situation arises and all practice is thrown away ­ because the
head has no energy.
You think for years that you will never be angry, then one day somebody insults you and in a single moment you have forgotten all that practice. And you
are angry! By the time you come to know that you are angry, anger has already happened. You are burning, you are fire. From where does this fire come? And
years of practice! That practice was just on the surface. Mind was pretending; because there was no situation provoking you, mind was able to pretend. Now
the situation has arisen and mind is not able to pretend. The reality asserts itself.

In a situation where you can’t do active techniques? Here are two simple but effective passive methods. And remember, you will find many more in the regularly rotated “Meditation of the Week” and “Meditation For Busy People.”

1. Watching the Breath

Breath-watching is a method that can be done anywhere, at any time, even if you have only a few minutes available. You can simply watch the rise and fall of your chest or belly as the breath comes in and goes out, or try this version….

Step 1: Watch the In Breath

Close your eyes and start watching your breath. First, the inhalation, from where it enters your nostrils, right down into your lungs.

Step 2: Watch the Gap That Follows

At the end of the inhalation there is gap, before the exhalation starts. It is of immense value. Watch that gap.

Step 3: Watch the Out Breath

Now watch the exhalation.

Step 4: Watch the Gap That Follows

At the end of the exhalation there is a second gap: watch that gap. Do these four steps for two to three times – just watching the breathing cycle, not changing it in anyway, just watching the natural rhythm.

Step 5: Counting In Breaths

Now start counting: Inhalation – count 1 (don’t count the exhalation), inhalation – 2, and so on, up to 10. Then count from 10 back to 1. Sometimes you may forget to watch the breath or you may count beyond 10. Then start again, at 1.

“These two things have to be remembered: watching, and particularly the gaps at the top and the bottom. The experience of that gap is you, your innermost core, your being. And second: go on counting, but not more than up to 10; and come back again to 1; and only count the inhalation.

These things help awareness. You have to be aware, otherwise you will start counting the exhalation, or you will go over 10.

If you enjoy this meditation, continue it. It is of immense value.” Osho

2. Four Levels of Relaxing

This particular method is useful for those time when you are sick because it helps build a loving connection, to create a rapport between yourself and your bodymind. Then you can take an active part in your own healing process.

Step 1: The Body

“Remember as many times as possible to look into the body and see whether you are carrying some tension in the body somewhere – the neck, the head or the legs…. Relax it consciously. Just go to that part of the body, and persuade that part, say to it lovingly ‘Relax!’

You will be surprised that if you approach any part of your body, it listens, it follows you – it is your body! With closed eyes, go inside the body from the toe to the head, searching for any place where there is a tension. And then talk to that part as you talk to a friend; let there be a dialogue between you and your body. Tell it to relax, and tell it, ‘There is nothing to fear. Don´t be afraid. I am here to take care; you can relax.’ Slowly slowly, you will learn the knack of it. Then the body becomes relaxed.”

Step 2: The Mind

“Then take another step, a little deeper; tell the mind to relax. And if the body listens, the mind also listens. But you cannot start with the mind, you have to start from the beginning. You cannot start from the middle. Many people start with the mind and they fail; they fail because they start from a wrong place. Everything should be done in the right order.

If you become capable of relaxing the body voluntarily, then you will be able to help your mind relax voluntarily. The mind is a more complex phenomenon. Once you have become confident that the body listens to you, you will have a new trust in yourself. Now even the mind can listen to you. It will take a little longer with the mind, but it happens.”

Step 3: The Heart

“When the mind is relaxed, then start relaxing your heart, the world of your feelings, emotions, which is even more complex, more subtle. But now you will be moving with trust, with great trust in yourself. Now you will know it is possible. If it is possible with the body and possible with the mind, it is possible with the heart too.”

Step 4: Being

“Then only, when you have gone through these three steps, can you take the fourth. Now you can go to the innermost core of your being, which is beyond body, mind and heart: the very center of your existence.

You will be able to relax it, too, and that relaxation certainly brings the greatest joy possible, the ultimate in ecstasy and acceptance. You will be full of bliss and rejoicing. Your life will have the quality of dance to it.”

Decision is good when it comes out of life; it is bad when it comes only out of the head. And when it comes only out of the head it is never decisive; it is always a conflict. The alternatives remain open and the mind goes on and on, from this side to that. That’s how the mind creates conflict.

The body is always herenow, the mind is never herenow; that is the whole conflict. You breathe here and now, you cannot breathe tomorrow and you cannot breathe yesterday. You have to breathe this moment, but you can think about tomorrow and you can think about yesterday.

So the body remains in the present and the mind goes on hopping between past and future, and there is a split between body and mind. The body is in the present and the mind is never in the present; they never meet, they never come across each other. And because of that split, anxiety, anguish and tension arise; one is there. This tension is worry.

The mind has to be brought to the present, because there is no other time.

Step 1: Watch Your BreathingJust sit in a chair, relaxed, make yourself comfortable and close your eyes. Just start looking at the breathing. Don’t change it; just look, watch. By your watching it, it will become slower and slower and slower. If ordinarily you take eight breaths in one minute, you will start taking six, five, four, three or two.

Within two or three weeks you will be taking one breath per minute. When you are taking one breath per minute the mind is coming closer to the body. Out of this small meditation a time comes when for minutes the breathing stops. Three or four minutes pass and then one breath. Then you are in tune with the body and you will know for the first time what the present is.

Otherwise it is just a word; the mind has never known it, the mind has never experienced it. It knows the past, it knows the future, so when you say present, the mind understands something in between past and future, in between something, but the mind has no experience of it.

So for one hour every day, relax into breathing and let the breathing go. It goes automatically. When you walk it goes automatically. Slowly, slowly there will be gaps and those gaps will give you the first experience of the present. Out of these days, suddenly the decision will arise, whatsoever it is.

It is immaterial what decision comes up. The most important thing is from where it comes; not what it is, but from where it comes. If it comes from the head it will create misery.

But if some decision arises from your totality then you never never repent for a single moment. A man who lives in the present knows nothing of repentance; he never looks back, he never changes his past and his memories and he never arranges his future.

Decision from the head is an ugly thing. The very word decision means ‘de-cision’; it cuts you off. It is not a good word. It simply means it cuts you off from reality. The head continuously cuts you off from reality.

My whole emphasis is on this moment, because this moment contains all. Now is the only reality — all else is either memory or imagination. And even for the past to exist as memory, now is needed. It doesn’t exist as the past; it exists as a thought in the present.

So is the case with the future: the future does not exist as the future, it exists as imagination in the present moment. All that exists, exists in the now. Now is the only time there is.

According to the Taoists, this love and ecstasy that we feel in our most intimate relationship is simply a taste of the Universal Love and the blissful oneness with the Original Force of the Universe that we can experience as we grow spiritually.

THE HASSID MYSTIC, ZUSIA, WAS DYING, AND HE STARTED PRAYING.

He was saying ‘I am trembling for a certain reason. This is my last moment, I am dying. Soon I will be facing my God, and I am certain he is not going to ask me “Zusia, why were you not a Moses?

If he asks I will say “Lord, because you didn’t give me the qualities of a Moses!”; there will be no problem. He will not ask me “Why were you not the Rabbi Akiba?” I will tell him “Sir, you never gave me the qualities of being an Akiba, that’s why.”

But I am trembling because if he asks “Zusia, why were you not a Zusia” then I will have nothing to answer, then I will have to look down in shame. That’s why I am trembling and these tears are flowing.

My whole life I tried to become Moses or Akiba or somebody else, and I completely forgot that he wanted me to be just Zusia and nobody else. Now I am trembling, now I am afraid. If he asks this question, what am I going to answer?

How will I be able to raise my eyes when he says “Why were you not Zusia? You were given all the qualities of being a Zusia, how did you miss?”